At least 140 killed in Ethiopia protests over state land plan: HRW

At least 140 people have been killed in Ethiopia over the past two months in a crackdown on anti-government protests sparked by plans to expand the capital into farmland, Human Rights Watch said on Friday.

From left to right, Gebru Gebremariam,Secretary General of the Ethiopian Federal Democratic Unity Forum, Beyene Petros, President, and Merara Merara Gudina, Vice- President of the Forum, during a press conference in Addis Ababa on December 23, 2015. An Ethiopian opposition party said more than 80 people have been killed by government forces during massive protests in the past four weeks in the country’s Oromia region, the biggest of the country’s federal states. Human Rights Watch said on January 8, the count of people killed is now at least 140.(AP Photo)

At least 140 people have been killed in Ethiopia over the past two months in a crackdown on anti-government protests sparked by plans to expand the capital into farmland, Human Rights Watch said on Friday.

“Security forces have killed at least 140 protesters and injured many more, according to activists, in what may be the biggest crisis to hit Ethiopia since the 2005 election violence,” HRW’s Felix Horne said.

The number reported by HRW is almost double the previous toll of 75 the group gave last month.

There was no immediate response from the Ethiopian government, which has previously put the death toll at five.

The protests began in November when students opposed government proposals to take over territory in several towns in the Oromia region, sparking fears that Addis Ababa was looking to grab land traditionally occupied by the Oromo people, the country’s largest ethnic group.

“Over the past eight weeks, Ethiopia’s largest region, Oromia, has been hit by a wave of mass protests over the expansion of the municipal boundary of the capital, Addis Ababa,” Horne said.

“The generally peaceful protests were sparked by fears the expansion will displace ethnic Oromo farmers from their land, the latest in a long list of Oromo grievances against the government.”

On December 23, police arrested Bekele Gerba, 54, deputy chairman of the Oromo Federalist Congress (OFC), Oromia’s largest legally registered political party. Bekele was previously convicted in 2011 of being a member of the banned Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), spending four years in jail.

“By treating both opposition politicians and peaceful protesters with an iron fist, the government is closing off ways for Ethiopians to non-violently express legitimate grievances,” Horne said.

“This is a dangerous trajectory that could put Ethiopia’s long-term stability at risk,” he warned.

With at least 27 million people, Oromia is the most populous of the country’s federal states and has its own language, Oromo, distinct from Ethiopia’s official Amharic language.

HRW has said the protests -- and bloody crackdown -- echoed protests in April and May 2014 when police were accused of opening fire and killing “dozens” of protestors. The government said eight people died in the 2014 unrest.